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Earlier this week, Mercedes revealed that they would be bringing significant upgrades to the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton later said that the changes have had a positive impact on the car's performance.
As reported by Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton claimed that while he is "still struggling with the car," Mercedes do seem quicker in Miami:
"We seem to be quicker here, and later on they were explaining to us that we definitely have improved in some way - and I'm not exactly sure why that is. We still have the bouncing, so we haven't cured it, but bit by bit we're improving the car. There are definitely positive elements to take from today. I'm still struggling with the car - George looked great out there - but we're trying a lot of different things. We'll converge and hopefully improve."
His teammate George Russell, who topped the charts in FP2, had a modest reaction to the result, claiming that the conditions in Miami suit the car better and that Friday may not be a clear indication of what's to come later this weekend:
"I don't really understand it to be honest, why we've hit the ground running. We always knew coming into the weekend that the conditions should suit us better, because we've been struggling with tyre warm-up. For sure that's played a big factor, but the car's working well. It's only Friday, we're not getting too carried away."
Russell took his first podium of the season at the Australian Grand Prix, while the seven-time world champion has been visibly struggling with the car.
Lewis Hamilton says the Miami track has “big, big, big bumps"
Lewis Hamilton, too, like several other drivers including Sergio Perez, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, commented on the challenges of driving on the new and bumpy Miami International Autodrome track. He went on to say that while the track is "nice to drive," it is extremely bumpy and is likely to cause problems with the actual racing.
Referring to the “big, big, big bumps in so many places” on the new F1 track, Lewis Hamilton said:
"You think that people in this day and age should be able to make a flat road relatively easy. I don’t know if they will be able to grind that at night and improve it. Otherwise the track’s quite nice to drive – except for the chicane. That might be the…I don’t want to put that quote out there actually so I’ll hold onto that…but it’s so tight. It reminds me of being in a B&Q car park when I was six-years-old in the go-kart going between cars. It’s a corner that maybe in future they can remove that one and it will improve the track.”
Lewis Hamilton finished FP1 and FP2 in eighth and fourteenth place respectively, while his teammate George Russell finished significantly ahead of him in both sessions.
